Why should an ex king’s summer home need police guards on 24-hour basis? On the cost of taxpayers and thus in austerity times where there is lack of personnel? Oh, apparently because the man moves to Greece from UK to spend the summer months here and live his very own Greek myth. Five policemen guard ex king’s summer home

Five policemen are being paid to guard the summer home of Greece’s former king, Constantine, in Argolida, in the Peloponnese, according to the local police workers’ union, which has written to Public Order Minister Nikos Dendias asking for staff to be relieved of the task due to limited resources.

According to the head of the Argolida union, Giorgos Papatheofanis, a local police precinct was closed down to free the officers to guard the ex-king’s home two months ago. Officers watched the house during the night to start with, but from June 1 their shifts were extended to 24-hour watch, Papatheofanis said. (full story ekahtimerini)

Constantine, served as King of Greece from 1964 until 1967. He was forced to exile by the military junta. A people’s referendum in 1974 decided, Greeks did not want a king, a royal family or a monarchy.

He has a Danish diplomatic passport due to his wife, being a Danish princess.

He is allowed to visit and stay in Greece but has not any official title. He is a private man whose sole contribution to Greece is his appearance to life-style magazines.

He is known to the Greeks as “the ex”

PS If he thinks he needs security, he should hire some and pay them by his own means. No money? he could sell his private yacht, for example. But “Noblesse oblige” (nobility obliges) and so we don’t ask questions about Constantine’s assets.

9 Comments so far:

It’s of course part of the whole crazy culture of “complementary policemen” if you are famous/important or want to be seen as such. But somehow I think this is just a tip of the iceberg. That whole peninsula (with Porto Heli en Kranidi) is a state within a state. Almost a Mt. Athos of the upper class in Greece and abroad. “The ex” is there. But so is his sister, the queen of Spain. The Dutch king and queen have bought a house. There are more foreign celebrities said to have a home there. Rumour talks about people like Sean Connery and even Putin. Almost all Greek high and mighty families have a residence. Kranidi has almost 250 (?) offshore companies registered at it’s local tax office. A tax office it kept because it had not to fuse with others during Kalikratis. And I doubt that it will be on the list to close this time around.
So, a strong police presence is deemed to be necessary by those who have a stake in that area. But my guess is it’s not only for “the ex” and probably much more then those 5 policemen…

Totally agree. But you and I know that it never works that way. Especially here in Greece where you are a nobody if you don’t have at least one police guard on your doorstep and accompanying you to your local Taverna…
And international it’s the same craziness. Why should the ex have a Danish diplomatic passport? Is he Danish? No. Is he working for the Danish state? No. Is he a diplomat? No. So the man has a diplomatic passport that has been issued under false pretences by the Danes and should be arrested as soon as he is entering any country.
But it would indeed be fun to find out what passport the other royalty of Europe is using when traveling abroad…

Yep, I checked also other royalty. And they are all traveling on a diplomatic passport. But most are given by the country which nationality they now have. So, the Argentinian Dutch queen has a Dutch diplomatic passport. Guess the Greek British prince consort Phillip will have an English one. Guess that most often the case.
But the link states that he is stripped of his Greek citizenship in 1994 and can’t have it back until he takes on a surname… So, he probably is Danish now… Great. That makes it even strangers that the Greek state feels obliged to protect this tourist when he is here.

His is King Constantine and he is former King of the Hellenes. Beside, as a former head of state he has cost the country much less than the others. It’s just plain dumb to keep him out of the political picture when he could be of great benefit to Greece even though he will never be head of state again.